1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cleaning and, more particularly, to a cleaning solution and cleaning systems that use the cleaning solution.
2. Description of Related Art
Gaming houses, casinos, card clubs and similar commercial ventures use playing cards and chips to conduct games such as Poker, Blackjack, and Baccarat in their everyday business. Due to the increasing popularity of these establishments and the fact that some are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a very large number of playing cards and chips are required during the everyday course of business.
Due to wear and tear caused by normal use, the usable life of paper based playing cards is short, requiring frequent replacement. As a result, paper cards are quickly being replaced with more durable plastic cards. These more durable plastic playing cards exhibit increased playing time and hence reduce the cost associated with the frequent replacement of paper cards. However, the benefit gained by this increased playing time is offset by card soiling, as oil and dirt mainly from the players' hands, is transferred to the cards during use. Chips, formed of either a plastic or clay like material, are also frequently soiled due to oil and dirt from players' hands. In addition, playing cards and chips are often soiled by contact with other surfaces, for example the playing surfaces and their surrounds. Often these playing surfaces can shed fibers as the cards and chips are moved. Such fibers then adhere to the cards, chips or other such items often in combination with other contaminants. Often, these contaminants can be detrimental to a person's health if breathed or ingested.
Playing cards and chips have to be kept clean to ensure their proper and effective use. For example, soiled cards or chips can stick to one another causing improper play for the cards, or an error in counting for chips. In addition, playing cards need to be free of markings to ensure that no "marked" cards exist to give certain players an unfair advantage of knowing the value and/or suit of such a "marked" card. Consequently, it is advantageous to clean playing cards and chips regularly.
In the past, playing cards and chips have been cleaned by hand, when cleaned at all. However hand-washing, always inefficient, is also cost prohibitive due to the large number of chips and cards requiring cleaning. The cleaning of chips is particularly laborious due to the textured surface of such chips that provides for the chips stackability. This texture tends to retain more oil and dirt than is commonly found on playing cards.
Recently, automated cleaning systems have become available to replace the hand-washing of playing cards. Examples of such automated cleaning systems directed towards cleaning playing cards are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,995, entitled "PLAYING CARD CLEANING APPARATUS" to Zippwald, Sr. and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,856, entitled "PLAYING CARD CLEANING APPARATUS AND ADJUSTABLE ROLLERS THEREFOR" to Thorne. No automated cleaning system for chips is known.
Both Zippwald and Thorne disclose a playing card cleaning machine which feeds a stack of cards one by one into a series of rollers for sequentially applying cleaning solution, scrubbing, and drying of the individual cards. In Zippwald, a motorized assembly feeds the cards toward a scrubbing means having seven rollers. The cards are then passed to a drying means consisting of roller-driven dual drying belts. In Thorne, cards are fed individually to a scrubbing means consisting of eleven rollers and then toward a drying means consisting of dual drying belts driven by ten rollers.
Both types of card cleaning machines utilize a large number of rollers, which increases the size and complexity of the machines. Furthermore, both Zippwald and Thorne use multiple scrubbing rollers to scrub the card as the card passes between the rollers. The scrubbing of the playing cards by such multiple rollers is required in these cleaning machines as common cleaning solutions are employed. However, the friction of this multiple scrubbing action contributes to wear on the cards thus decreasing the cards useful life.
In both Zippwald and Thorne, the cards are dried by passing them between drying belts in a serpentine pattern. In addition to increasing the size of the cleaning machine, the serpentine belts cause the cards to become sequentially convex and concave as they travel across the rollers driving the belts. Repeated travel through such a drying means can undesirably decrease the rigidity of the cards.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have an automated system for cleaning playing cards which overcomes the deficiencies described above with respect to previously known playing card cleaning machines. In addition, it would be advantageous to have an automated system for cleaning chips. It would further be advantageous if such playing card and chip cleaning systems shared design features to enhance the usability and maintainability of such systems by users. In addition, it would be advantageous if both the playing card and chip cleaning systems encompassed a cleaning solution that made possible a simple mechanical design wherein the need for scrubbing rollers, as is the previously known machines, is minimized. It would also be advantageous if the cleaning solution used as part of the cleaning systems could be employed to clean other surfaces that the cards and chips contact, for example the playing surfaces and surrounds. Finally, it would be advantageous if the cleaning solution provided a coating upon drying such that the surfaces cleaned are sealed to allow for increased use and/or extended time between cleanings.